733 research outputs found
NMR and Relaxation in Superconductor
NMR and nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate (NSLR) are reported at
7.2 Tesla and 1.4 Tesla in powder samples of the intermetallic compound
with superconducting transition temperature in zero field = 39.2 K. From
the first order quadrupole perturbed NMR specrum a quadrupole coupling
frequency of 835 5 kHz is obtained. The Knight shift is very small and it
decreases to zero in the superconducting phase. The NSLR follows a linear law
with = 165 10 (sec K) . The results in the normal phase indicate a
negligible -character of the wave function of the conduction electrons at
the Fermi level. Below the NSLR is strongly field dependent indicating
the presence of an important contribution related to the density and the
thermal motion of flux lines. No coherence peak is observed at the lower field
investigated (1.4 T)
A New SX Phe Star in the Globular Cluster M15
A new SX Phe star (labelled SXP1) found from CCD photometry is the first
to be discovered in the globular cluster M15. It is a blue straggler and is
located 102\arcsec.8 north and 285\arcsec.6 west of the center of M15
\citep{har96}. Mean magnitudes of SXP1 are = 18$\fm$671 and
= 18\fm445. The amplitude of variability of SXP1 is measured to be . From multiple-frequency analysis based on the Fourier
decomposition method, we detect two very closely separated pulsating
frequencies: the primary frequency at c/d for both - and
-bands, and the secondary frequency at c/d for the -band and
24.343 c/d for the -band. This star is the second among known SX Phe stars
found to pulsate with very closely separated frequencies ().
These frequencies may be explained by excitation of nonradial modes; however,
we have an incomplete understanding of this phenomenon in the case of SX Phe
stars with relatively high amplitudes. The metallicity-period and the
variability amplitude-period relations for SXP1 in M15 are found to be
consistent with those for SX Phe stars in other globular clusters.Comment: 15 pages with 6 figures, accepted by the Astronomical Journal
(scheduled May 2001
Lanczos exact diagonalization study of field-induced phase transition for Ising and Heisenberg antiferromagnets
Using an exact diagonalization treatment of Ising and Heisenberg model
Hamiltonians, we study field-induced phase transition for two-dimensional
antiferromagnets. For the system of Ising antiferromagnet the predicted
field-induced phase transition is of first order, while for the system of
Heisenberg antiferromagnet it is the second-order transition. We find from the
exact diagonalization calculations that the second-order phase transition
(metamagnetism) occurs through a spin-flop process as an intermediate step.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Toward laboratory blood test-comparable photometric assessments for anemia in veterinary hematology
Anemia associated with intestinal parasites and malnutrition is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in small ruminants worldwide. Qualitative scoring of conjunctival redness has been developed so that farmers can gauge anemia in sheep and goats to identify animals that require treatment. For clinically relevant anemia diagnosis, complete blood count-comparable quantitative methods often rely on complicated and expensive optical instruments, requiring detailed spectral information of hemoglobin. We report experimental and numerical results for simple, yet reliable, noninvasive hemoglobin detection that can be correlated with laboratory-based blood hemoglobin testing for anemia diagnosis. In our pilot animal study using calves, we exploit the third eyelid (i.e., palpebral conjunctiva) as an effective sensing site. To further test spectrometer-free (or spectrometerless) hemoglobin assessments, we implement full spectral reconstruction from RGB data and partial least square regression. The unique combination of RGB-based spectral reconstruction and partial least square regression could potentially offer uncomplicated instrumentation and avoid the use of a spectrometer, which is vital for realizing a compact and inexpensive hematology device for quantitative anemia detection in the farm field
New SX Phoenicis Stars in the Globular Cluster M53
Through time-series CCD photometry of the metal-poor globular cluster M53, we
have discovered eight new SX Phoenicis type stars (labeled from SXP1 to SXP8).
All the new SX Phoenicis stars are located in the blue straggler star region of
a color-magnitude diagram of M53. One of these stars (SXP2) is found to have
very closely separated pulsation frequencies: where
and are primary and secondary frequencies. This may be due to excitation
of non-radial modes. Six of these SX Phoenicis stars are considered to be
pulsating in the fundamental mode. They show a tight linear correlation between
the period and luminosity. We derive a period - luminosity relation for the
fundamental mode for the period range of :
with an rms scatter of 0.038,
corresponding to for an adopted distance modulus
of (Harris 1996).Comment: 31 pages with 7 figures, accepted by the Astronomical Journal
(scheduled June 2003
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Capsaicin represses transcriptional activity of β-catenin in human colorectal cancer cells
Capsaicin is a pungent ingredient in chili red peppers and has been linked to suppression of growth in various cancer cells. However, the underlying mechanism(s) by which capsaicin induces growth arrest and apoptosis of cancer cells is not completely understood. In the present study, we investigated whether capsaicin alters β-catenin-dependent signaling in human colorectal cancer cells in vitro. Exposure of SW480, LoVo, and HCT-116 cells to capsaicin suppressed cell proliferation. Transient transfection with a β-catenin/T-cell factor (TCF)-responsive reporter indicated that capsaicin suppressed the transcriptional activity of β-catenin/TCF. Capsaicin treatment resulted in a decrease of intracellular β-catenin levels and a reduction of transcripts from the β-catenin gene (CTNNB1). These results were confirmed by a reduced luciferase reporter activity driven by promoter-reporter construct containing the promoter region of the Catnb gene. In addition, capsaicin destabilized β-catenin through enhancement of proteosomal-dependent degradation. Western blot and immunoprecipitation studies indicated that capsaicin treatment suppressed TCF-4 expression and disrupted the interaction of TCF-4 and β-catenin. This study identifies a role for the β-catenin/TCF-dependent pathway that potentially contributes to the anti-cancer activity of capsaicin in human colorectal cancer cells.Keywords: β-catenin, Colorectal cancer, Capsaicin, TCF-4Keywords: β-catenin, Colorectal cancer, Capsaicin, TCF-
Surface functionalization of surfactant-free particles : a strategy to tailor the properties of nanocomposites for enhanced thermoelectric performance
Altres ajuts: MCS acknowledge MINECO Juan de la Cierva Incorporation fellowship (JdlCI 2019) and Severo Ochoa. ICN2 is funded by the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. This study was supported by MCIN with funding from European Union NextGenerationEU (PRTR-C17.I1) and Generalitat de Catalunya.The broad implementation of thermoelectricity requires high-performance and low-cost materials. One possibility is employing surfactant-free solution synthesis to produce nanopowders. We propose the strategy of functionalizing "naked" particles' surface by inorganic molecules to control the nanostructure and, consequently, thermoelectric performance. In particular, we use bismuth thiolates to functionalize surfactant-free SnTe particles' surfaces. Upon thermal processing, bismuth thiolates decomposition renders SnTe-BiS nanocomposites with synergistic functions: 1) carrier concentration optimization by Bi doping; 2) Seebeck coefficient enhancement and bipolar effect suppression by energy filtering; and 3) lattice thermal conductivity reduction by small grain domains, grain boundaries and nanostructuration. Overall, the SnTe-BiS nanocomposites exhibit peak z T up to 1.3 at 873 K and an average z T of ≈0.6 at 300-873 K, which is among the highest reported for solution-processed SnTe
Identification of a novel angiogenic peptide from periostin
Angiogenic peptides have therapeutic potential for the treatment of chronic ischemic diseases. Periostin, an extracellular matrix protein expressed in injured tissues, promotes angiogenesis and tissue repair. We previously reported that in vivo administration of both recombinant full-length protein and the first FAS I domain of periostin alleviated peripheral artery occlusive disease by stimulating the migration of humane endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) and subsequent angiogenesis. In the present study, we ascertained the peptide sequence responsible for the periostin-induced angiogenesis. By serial deletion mapping of the first FAS I domain, we identified a peptide sequence (amino acids 142-151) of periostin for stimulation of chemotactic migration, adhesion, proliferation and endothelial tube formation of human ECFCs in vitro. Chemotactic migration of ECFCs induced by the periostin peptide was blocked by pre-incubation with an anti-??5 integrin neutralizing antibody. Treatment of ECFCs with the periostin peptide led to phosphorylation of both AKT and ERK, and pretreatment of ECFCs with the MEK-ERK pathway inhibitor U0126 or the PI3K-AKT pathway inhibitors, LY294002 or Wortmannin, blocked the periostin peptide-stimulated migration of ECFCs. These results suggest that the synthetic periostin peptide can be applied for stimulating angiogenic and therapeutic potentials of ECFCs
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